Hearing things like this makes me want to re-enlist. Semper Fi Marines - just though I'd share.
http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_recon_062209w/
Recon-improvement plan pays off for Corps
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 22, 2009 7:00:46 EDT
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — They endured countless hours of swimming and finning in the combat pool and then in the open, cold ocean.
They covered miles with heavy combat packs over steep hills and sandy beaches. They fought strong ocean currents and big swells to drive and navigate their rubber boats.
In this class of newly trained and longtime infantrymen, all dreaming of becoming reconnaissance Marines, many questioned whether they had the grit to complete the grueling course.
So they were especially proud to step onto the School of Infantry-West parade deck June 12 for graduation ceremonies from the Marine Corps’ Basic Reconnaissance Course, after nine weeks of training by Reconnaissance Training Company. The Marines survived the course and earned the coveted title and 0321 military occupational specialty of a recon Marine.
The high tempo at the course reflects some of the successes in the Corps’ effort to rebuild and reshape its reconnaissance community, positioning it for ongoing wars and future combat operations. Known simply as “Fix Recon,” the effort to grow and evolve the Corps’ capability has been ongoing for a decade, but it may be finally drawing to a close.
The men of Class 05-09 are the Corps’ newest group of trained reconnaissance Marines and soon will report to an active-duty or reserve recon unit. About 600 Marines, and a few dozen Navy corpsmen, will graduate from the course this year — roughly 120 Marines won’t make it — entering a community that has grown exponentially since the war in Afghanistan began.
Fixing recon
In 2001, the Corps had roughly 550 billets for reconnaissance Marines. Today, that number has tripled and keeps growing, with the fiscal 2009 requirement for active-duty units at about 2,038, said Maj. Brian Gilman, the 0321 occupational field manager at Plans, Policies and Operations branch in Washington.
He said that figure is expected to increase slightly by 2012 as part of an initiative aimed at the Corps’ force reconnaissance capabilities and units.
“Fix Recon” began with a 1999 directive by then-Commandant Gen. James L. Jones to look at equipment, manning, training and other issues. After Sept. 11, deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq followed, along with the birth of Marine Corps Special Operations Command and the Corps’ growth to 202,000.
“There has been a lot of changes since ‘Fix Recon’ happened,” Gilman said. “We’ve had to adjust to that.”
Continual deployments meant more demands on recon and concerns about capacity issues, he said. Standing up MarSOC, for instance, shifted 26 percent of those assets away from the Marine expeditionary forces.
High retention has helped keep the Corps rolling. New recruiting initiatives — such as an upcoming program beginning in October that gives new recon Marines five-year orders so they can spend more operational time with their unit — should buy even more time.
The recon community is shaping up. The “Fix Recon” initiative is in the third and final implementation phase, as officials work on an assessment of ground recon capabilities for the Marine air-ground task force, a study that looks at capabilities the Corps will need 10 years from now.
The Marine Requirements Oversight Council is expected to get the initial capabilities document in September, he added.
Consolidated training
The health of the recon community hinges greatly on pulling enough well-trained men into the recon pipeline. One big change began two years ago, when the Corps decided to merge the East Coast-based Amphibious Reconnaissance School and the West Coast-based BRC into a single course at Camp Pendleton, housed at SOI-West under its Advanced Infantry Training Battalion.
Centralizing training at one location meant operational recon battalions no longer had to recruit and screen future recon Marines, enabling them to focus on training, preparing and deploying platoons overseas.
“We took that burden off of them,” Gilman said.
The Corps now has a single training syllabus and, officials note, a more consistent training pipeline for all recon Marines — whether active duty or reserve, or filling a billet at division recon, Force reconnaissance companies or MarSOC’s special operations companies.
“Standardization of training was definitely one of those concerns,” Gilman said.
At Camp Pendleton, the recon growth is perhaps felt most at SOI-West, where its Recon Training Company will train and graduate eight classes this fiscal year and where instructors are preparing to ramp up with a ninth class in 2010. In mid-June, the company was “triple stacked,” with three classes on deck as Class 05-09 headed into its final week.
It’s usually busy, as new students wait to begin their class while others spend weeks or months with one of the platoons, preparing themselves to meet the tough physical fitness standards to successfully screen for the course.
Newly graduated Marines assigned the 0321 MOS report to their recon unit ready for follow-on individual and unit-level training ahead of deploying, a benefit their operational units appreciate, said Col. Brennan Byrne, who commands SOI-West.
“The guy gets to the unit a vetted recon Marine,” Byrne said. “We’ve increased the operational deployability numbers. He will be a full-up round.”
The recon training pipeline will likely be expanded to include a Recon Team Leaders Course, which SOI officials hope to begin this fall with four classes each fiscal year, and eventually other courses for unit leaders.
“We now have the opportunity to train the force as you wish to see the force,” Byrne said.
Standards remain tough
While the syllabus has been tweaked, Byrne said, the standards have not been reduced.
“We’ve actually increased standards in a number of areas,” he said. “We’re taking the approach that we are building the basic recon Marine, we are building the team leader, and we are building the unit leader.”
Students must score at least 225 on the Physical Fitness Test by training day 21, get at least a first-class water safety qualification to graduate, and meet the standard for a 1-kilometer ocean swim and 8-mile hikes with 50-pound packs, among other requirements.
About three-quarters of BRC students are entry level Marines — recent infantry school graduates — and about one-quarter are junior Marines, including corporals and sergeants from noninfantry MOSs. Handfuls of Navy corpsmen hoping to become amphibious reconnaissance corpsmen also attend.
BRC graduation rates now average about 80 percent, a big improvement from the roughly 50 percent who graduated from the courses years ago. Instructors and leaders give much credit to their local initiative — Marines Awaiting Recon Training, or MART — created to prepare and mentor Marines and sailors readying to join a new BRC class or those students recovering from an injury or illness.
Despite the name, “It’s not a basic skills set. It is an advanced skill set,” said Capt. James Richardson, Reconnaissance Training Company commander. “You expect more from a reconnaissance Marine.”
So the Marines — many are privates first class, instructors noted — soon find out that more is expected of them from the get-go.
“They are calling in live-fire mortars in this course,” Richardson said. “That’s unheard of. Most men in the infantry, they’re probably corporals or sergeants before they get this opportunity.”
The training isn’t for the faint of heart. Even the third phase, which includes operating boats in the surf zone, can be taxing, sending at least one student in each class to the corpsman or the hospital.
Recon Marines, Richardson notes, will have greater responsibilities. One day, that recon Marine will be a team leader briefing a Marine expeditionary unit commander.
“He is absolutely responsible for that mission,” said Capt. Bart Lambert, BRC officer-in-charge. “Preparing him for that, that’s the goal.”
So the company established MART Platoon so students can improve their fitness levels before beginning the course. It works — about 90 percent in MART graduate from the course.
The platoon can tailor the training to help students with anything, even tying knots, said Richardson, who calls its four instructors the “unsung heroes.”
Many students, said chief instructor Sgt. Lynn Westover, don’t have enough strength and endurance for the long runs with heavy packs and often struggle to swim with combat gear and fins longer than two kilometers. The water piece is a tough nut to crack, instructors say.
Several Marines said the extra MART training and mentoring are huge.
“The instructors got us into shape. ... They encourage you,” said Lance Cpl. Gary Manders, 19, who improved his swim during three months at MART and saw his PFT score jump from 220 to 276.
Lambert said that BRC classes have averaged 260 by the training day 21, and recent classes hit 275. Three students tallied course records in the run (17:05), crunches (160) and pull-ups (45), he added.
“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Manders said. “I was weak in all areas, especially the water.”
THINK YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES?
Considering a move to reconnaissance? Here’s what you need to know:
Getting in the door
To obtain the coveted 0321 military occupational specialty, Marines must graduate from the Basic Recon Course, taught at the School of Infantry-West’s Recon Training Company, Camp Pendleton, Calif. To get there, you must be a U.S. citizen fluent in English and meet a handful of other requirements, including:
• Score 105 or higher on your General Technical test.
• Have completed Infantry Training Battalion course, for enlisted Marines.
• Have a 3rd Class swim qualification. (You will have to reach 1st Class by the end of Phase 1.)
• Score at least 200 on your physical fitness test. (You will need a first-class score of at least 225 during Phase 1.)
• Have normal color vision and good eyesight — at least 20/200.
Once you’re there
The nine-week BRC has three phases:
• Phase 1. Four weeks. Focuses on a wealth of individual skills, including swimming, finning, rucksack hiking, land navigation, helicopter rope suspension training, communications and supporting arms.
• Phase 2. Three weeks. Focuses on combat patrolling with a mix of classroom and field training, including a nine-day exercise in full mission profiles.
• Phase 3. Two weeks. Held in Coronado, Calif. Focuses on amphibious reconnaissance, boat operations and nautical navigation.
Where you’ll go
Recon billets at Marine operational units include:
• 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton.
• Force Recon Company, 1st Recon Battalion.
• 2nd Recon Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Force Company, 2nd Recon Battalion.
• 3rd Recon Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, Okinawa, Japan.
• 4th Recon Battalion (reserve), San Antonio, Texas.
• 3rd Force Recon Company (reserve), Mobile, Ala.
• 4th Force Recon Company (reserve), Alameda, Calif.
• Marine Corps Special Operations Command.
http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_recon_062209w/
Recon-improvement plan pays off for Corps
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 22, 2009 7:00:46 EDT
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — They endured countless hours of swimming and finning in the combat pool and then in the open, cold ocean.
They covered miles with heavy combat packs over steep hills and sandy beaches. They fought strong ocean currents and big swells to drive and navigate their rubber boats.
In this class of newly trained and longtime infantrymen, all dreaming of becoming reconnaissance Marines, many questioned whether they had the grit to complete the grueling course.
So they were especially proud to step onto the School of Infantry-West parade deck June 12 for graduation ceremonies from the Marine Corps’ Basic Reconnaissance Course, after nine weeks of training by Reconnaissance Training Company. The Marines survived the course and earned the coveted title and 0321 military occupational specialty of a recon Marine.
The high tempo at the course reflects some of the successes in the Corps’ effort to rebuild and reshape its reconnaissance community, positioning it for ongoing wars and future combat operations. Known simply as “Fix Recon,” the effort to grow and evolve the Corps’ capability has been ongoing for a decade, but it may be finally drawing to a close.
The men of Class 05-09 are the Corps’ newest group of trained reconnaissance Marines and soon will report to an active-duty or reserve recon unit. About 600 Marines, and a few dozen Navy corpsmen, will graduate from the course this year — roughly 120 Marines won’t make it — entering a community that has grown exponentially since the war in Afghanistan began.
Fixing recon
In 2001, the Corps had roughly 550 billets for reconnaissance Marines. Today, that number has tripled and keeps growing, with the fiscal 2009 requirement for active-duty units at about 2,038, said Maj. Brian Gilman, the 0321 occupational field manager at Plans, Policies and Operations branch in Washington.
He said that figure is expected to increase slightly by 2012 as part of an initiative aimed at the Corps’ force reconnaissance capabilities and units.
“Fix Recon” began with a 1999 directive by then-Commandant Gen. James L. Jones to look at equipment, manning, training and other issues. After Sept. 11, deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq followed, along with the birth of Marine Corps Special Operations Command and the Corps’ growth to 202,000.
“There has been a lot of changes since ‘Fix Recon’ happened,” Gilman said. “We’ve had to adjust to that.”
Continual deployments meant more demands on recon and concerns about capacity issues, he said. Standing up MarSOC, for instance, shifted 26 percent of those assets away from the Marine expeditionary forces.
High retention has helped keep the Corps rolling. New recruiting initiatives — such as an upcoming program beginning in October that gives new recon Marines five-year orders so they can spend more operational time with their unit — should buy even more time.
The recon community is shaping up. The “Fix Recon” initiative is in the third and final implementation phase, as officials work on an assessment of ground recon capabilities for the Marine air-ground task force, a study that looks at capabilities the Corps will need 10 years from now.
The Marine Requirements Oversight Council is expected to get the initial capabilities document in September, he added.
Consolidated training
The health of the recon community hinges greatly on pulling enough well-trained men into the recon pipeline. One big change began two years ago, when the Corps decided to merge the East Coast-based Amphibious Reconnaissance School and the West Coast-based BRC into a single course at Camp Pendleton, housed at SOI-West under its Advanced Infantry Training Battalion.
Centralizing training at one location meant operational recon battalions no longer had to recruit and screen future recon Marines, enabling them to focus on training, preparing and deploying platoons overseas.
“We took that burden off of them,” Gilman said.
The Corps now has a single training syllabus and, officials note, a more consistent training pipeline for all recon Marines — whether active duty or reserve, or filling a billet at division recon, Force reconnaissance companies or MarSOC’s special operations companies.
“Standardization of training was definitely one of those concerns,” Gilman said.
At Camp Pendleton, the recon growth is perhaps felt most at SOI-West, where its Recon Training Company will train and graduate eight classes this fiscal year and where instructors are preparing to ramp up with a ninth class in 2010. In mid-June, the company was “triple stacked,” with three classes on deck as Class 05-09 headed into its final week.
It’s usually busy, as new students wait to begin their class while others spend weeks or months with one of the platoons, preparing themselves to meet the tough physical fitness standards to successfully screen for the course.
Newly graduated Marines assigned the 0321 MOS report to their recon unit ready for follow-on individual and unit-level training ahead of deploying, a benefit their operational units appreciate, said Col. Brennan Byrne, who commands SOI-West.
“The guy gets to the unit a vetted recon Marine,” Byrne said. “We’ve increased the operational deployability numbers. He will be a full-up round.”
The recon training pipeline will likely be expanded to include a Recon Team Leaders Course, which SOI officials hope to begin this fall with four classes each fiscal year, and eventually other courses for unit leaders.
“We now have the opportunity to train the force as you wish to see the force,” Byrne said.
Standards remain tough
While the syllabus has been tweaked, Byrne said, the standards have not been reduced.
“We’ve actually increased standards in a number of areas,” he said. “We’re taking the approach that we are building the basic recon Marine, we are building the team leader, and we are building the unit leader.”
Students must score at least 225 on the Physical Fitness Test by training day 21, get at least a first-class water safety qualification to graduate, and meet the standard for a 1-kilometer ocean swim and 8-mile hikes with 50-pound packs, among other requirements.
About three-quarters of BRC students are entry level Marines — recent infantry school graduates — and about one-quarter are junior Marines, including corporals and sergeants from noninfantry MOSs. Handfuls of Navy corpsmen hoping to become amphibious reconnaissance corpsmen also attend.
BRC graduation rates now average about 80 percent, a big improvement from the roughly 50 percent who graduated from the courses years ago. Instructors and leaders give much credit to their local initiative — Marines Awaiting Recon Training, or MART — created to prepare and mentor Marines and sailors readying to join a new BRC class or those students recovering from an injury or illness.
Despite the name, “It’s not a basic skills set. It is an advanced skill set,” said Capt. James Richardson, Reconnaissance Training Company commander. “You expect more from a reconnaissance Marine.”
So the Marines — many are privates first class, instructors noted — soon find out that more is expected of them from the get-go.
“They are calling in live-fire mortars in this course,” Richardson said. “That’s unheard of. Most men in the infantry, they’re probably corporals or sergeants before they get this opportunity.”
The training isn’t for the faint of heart. Even the third phase, which includes operating boats in the surf zone, can be taxing, sending at least one student in each class to the corpsman or the hospital.
Recon Marines, Richardson notes, will have greater responsibilities. One day, that recon Marine will be a team leader briefing a Marine expeditionary unit commander.
“He is absolutely responsible for that mission,” said Capt. Bart Lambert, BRC officer-in-charge. “Preparing him for that, that’s the goal.”
So the company established MART Platoon so students can improve their fitness levels before beginning the course. It works — about 90 percent in MART graduate from the course.
The platoon can tailor the training to help students with anything, even tying knots, said Richardson, who calls its four instructors the “unsung heroes.”
Many students, said chief instructor Sgt. Lynn Westover, don’t have enough strength and endurance for the long runs with heavy packs and often struggle to swim with combat gear and fins longer than two kilometers. The water piece is a tough nut to crack, instructors say.
Several Marines said the extra MART training and mentoring are huge.
“The instructors got us into shape. ... They encourage you,” said Lance Cpl. Gary Manders, 19, who improved his swim during three months at MART and saw his PFT score jump from 220 to 276.
Lambert said that BRC classes have averaged 260 by the training day 21, and recent classes hit 275. Three students tallied course records in the run (17:05), crunches (160) and pull-ups (45), he added.
“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Manders said. “I was weak in all areas, especially the water.”
THINK YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES?
Considering a move to reconnaissance? Here’s what you need to know:
Getting in the door
To obtain the coveted 0321 military occupational specialty, Marines must graduate from the Basic Recon Course, taught at the School of Infantry-West’s Recon Training Company, Camp Pendleton, Calif. To get there, you must be a U.S. citizen fluent in English and meet a handful of other requirements, including:
• Score 105 or higher on your General Technical test.
• Have completed Infantry Training Battalion course, for enlisted Marines.
• Have a 3rd Class swim qualification. (You will have to reach 1st Class by the end of Phase 1.)
• Score at least 200 on your physical fitness test. (You will need a first-class score of at least 225 during Phase 1.)
• Have normal color vision and good eyesight — at least 20/200.
Once you’re there
The nine-week BRC has three phases:
• Phase 1. Four weeks. Focuses on a wealth of individual skills, including swimming, finning, rucksack hiking, land navigation, helicopter rope suspension training, communications and supporting arms.
• Phase 2. Three weeks. Focuses on combat patrolling with a mix of classroom and field training, including a nine-day exercise in full mission profiles.
• Phase 3. Two weeks. Held in Coronado, Calif. Focuses on amphibious reconnaissance, boat operations and nautical navigation.
Where you’ll go
Recon billets at Marine operational units include:
• 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton.
• Force Recon Company, 1st Recon Battalion.
• 2nd Recon Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Force Company, 2nd Recon Battalion.
• 3rd Recon Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, Okinawa, Japan.
• 4th Recon Battalion (reserve), San Antonio, Texas.
• 3rd Force Recon Company (reserve), Mobile, Ala.
• 4th Force Recon Company (reserve), Alameda, Calif.
• Marine Corps Special Operations Command.